Food Safety

Chronology of Coverage

Mar. 25, 2015

Outbreak of listeriosis that contributed to deaths of three people in Wichita, Kan, has been traced to Blue Bell Ice Cream production facility in Broken Arrow, Okla; incident follows earlier recall of products from main Blue Bell production facility in Brenham, Tex. MORE

Mar. 13, 2015

Mar. 2, 2015

Chinese technology firms are addressing food safety issues in country's vast food supply chain, seeking to upgrade old systems with data collection, smartphone apps and online markets; they are attempting to earn trust of customers by helping them avoid tainted food, but food safety scandals still occur often. MORE

Feb. 21, 2015

Pres Obama in his new budget request proposes that number of agencies dealing with food safety be reduced from 15 separate agencies down to a single one: Food Safety Administration; move is already being opposed by some food safety experts and consumer groups. MORE

Jan. 14, 2015

Indian authorities say at least 23 people died and 200 others sickened after drinking contaminated liquor in state of Uttar Pradesh. MORE

Jan. 12, 2015

Contaminated traditional beer kills 56 people at funeral in Mozambique, and 49 others are admitted to hospitals for poisoning. MORE

Jan. 8, 2015

McDonald's Corporation chain in Japan issues apology and vows to improve safety of its products after diners find foreign objects, including a human tooth, in their food. MORE

Dec. 20, 2014

Centers for Disease Control issues warning against eating prepackaged caramel apples amid listeria concerns; five people have died and 21 have been hospitalized in 10 states after eating the apples. MORE

Dec. 13, 2014

Op-Ed article by author Ted Genoways warns that experimental inspection program approved by Food Safety and Inspection Service of United States Department of Agriculture and intended to speed pork production raises risk of contaminated pork; urges USDA inspector general and Government Accountability Office to intervene and verify its safety before program is rolled out across pork-processing industry. MORE

Nov. 13, 2014

Op-Ed article by Professors Jacob E Gersen and Benjamin I Sachs holds country needs new labor laws for restaurant, farm and slaughterhouse workers, who play a critical role in nation's economic and public health systems; warns without such laws, country runs risk that workers, charged with producing our food, will be unable to protect public safety. MORE

Sep. 27, 2014

No criminal charges will be filed in the case of Jan Harding, customer who nearly died after unknowingly drinking iced tea mixed with chemicals at Dickey's Barbecue restaurant in Salt Lake City, Utah; restaurant will enter into mediation with Harding and her family. MORE

Sep. 20, 2014

Federal jury in Georgia convicts peanut plant owner Stewart Parnell and two others in a salmonella outbreak that sickened hundreds, was linked to nine deaths and prompted one of the largest food recalls in the nation. MORE

Sep. 3, 2014

McDonald's, responding to scandal involving food safety in China, names a new food safety officer and says it will monitor its suppliers in China more closely to prevent mishandling of food products. MORE

Aug. 28, 2014

Fonterra Cooperative Group of New Zealand will spend more than $500 million in deal with Beingmate Baby and Child Food Company, Chinese manufacturer of infant formula; announcement comes six years after Fonterra's partnership with infant formula maker Sanlu Group dissolved over production of tainted formula; deal is latest that shows foreign companies hope to turn profit by bringing safer food to China. MORE

Aug. 19, 2014

Northern California slaughterhouse Rancho Feeding Corp co-owners Jesse Amaral Jr and Robert Singleton, and employees Eugene Corda and Felix Cabrera, are indicted on charges of distributing adulterated, misbranded and uninspected meat; prosecutors say men slaughtered cows with cancer while inspectors were on their lunch breaks, and then distributed diseased cattle. MORE

Aug. 13, 2014

Denmark's Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries says that listeria outbreak tied to contaminated Danish meat has killed 12 people since September 2013. MORE

Aug. 9, 2014

McDonald's says its global sales forecast for 2014 is at risk after China's food scandal drove away diners and forced it to scramble to find new suppliers of ingredients. MORE

Aug. 1, 2014

OSI Group, one of top meat producers in the United States, has become enveloped in a food safety scandal in China; stands accused of doctoring labels to extend expiration dates on chicken and beef products, among other lapses; situation is rare black mark for OSI, one of America's top meat producers, and speaks to broader weaknesses in China's food safety system. MORE

Jul. 29, 2014

American company OSI Group says it is halting operations at its Chinese plant, Shanghai Husi Food, and will review all its China plants after food scandal involving using expired meat to make fast-food products; McDonald's takes some meat items off its Chinese menu. MORE

Jul. 25, 2014

Editorial contends revelations that Shanghai Husi Food, meat supplier to fast-food restaurants based in Shanghai, used expired chicken and beef in its products are stark reminder that China needs to do more to improve its inadequate food safety system; warns that weak and uneven enforcement of food laws have encouraged anything-goes culture among food producers. MORE

Jul. 24, 2014

Scandal involving spoiled meat in fast-food products shows that China's attempted transformation of its food-quality apparatus since 2008 has run up against country's centuries-old and sprawling food supply chain; growing presence of big American brands means country's oversight efforts and lapses are playing out on global stage. MORE

Jul. 5, 2014

Foster Farms has issued recall for 170 different chicken products after being linked to outbreak of antibiotic-resistant strain of salmonella. MORE

Jun. 14, 2014

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issue warning to consumers who eat chia powder; twenty-one people in 12 states have been sickened with salmonella linked to powder, which is made from ground chia seeds and often added to smoothies and other foods for health benefits. MORE

Jun. 13, 2014

Federal officials say dozens of Whole Foods stores in the Northeast and restaurant in New York received beef over eight-month period that may not have been properly slaughtered to reduce threat of mad cow disease; Fruitland American Meat, producer of beef, recalled thousands of pounds of meat. MORE

Jun. 11, 2014

Artisanal cheese makers and consumers express outrage over decision by Food and Drug Administration to question use of wood forms and shelves for cheeses; FDA holds wood retains bacteria and cannot be properly cleaned, which can lead to consumer illness; American Cheese Society reports that more than a third of all cheese makers in America use wood in their process. MORE

Jun. 10, 2014

Food and Drug Administration announces that it has set new safety standards for infant formula; rules require manufactures to screen products for salmonella and cronobacter, a potentially lethal germ. MORE

Jun. 3, 2014

Quality Egg agrees to pay $6.8 million in fines for selling old eggs with false labels and the tainted products that caused nationwide salmonella outbreak in 2010. MORE

May. 23, 2014

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention releases report about New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene pilot project that used Yelp reviews to identify unreported outbreaks of food-borne illness; officials say project, which will continue, helps identify public health issues by using social media and big databases. MORE

May. 22, 2014

Federal prosecutors in Iowa bring felony charges against Quality Egg LLC, stemming from 2010 salmonella outbreak; owners Austin J DeCoster and his son Peter are each charged with selling adulterated food across state lines. MORE

May. 21, 2014

Petco says it will stop selling dog and cat treats made in China due to persistent fears that they are making pets sick; Food and Drug Administration investigators began receiving reports of illnesses in 2007, with latest update saying it has received more than 4,800 complaints and more than 1,000 reports of dog deaths resulting from Chinese-made jerky treats. MORE

May. 15, 2014

Mets first baseman Lucas Duda and Philadelphia Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg say they got sick after eating at Shake Shack at Citi Field; Mets management says it does not believe tainted burgers came from stadium; Shake Shack releases statement saying it is looking into report. MORE

Apr. 5, 2014

Health officials temporarily shut down Dominique Ansel Bakery in SoHo, which shot to fame after its eponymous chef created croissant-and-doughnut hybrids called cronuts, after finding a severe mouse infestation on premises. MORE

Mar. 12, 2014

Food and Drug Administration halts operations at Roos Foods, cheese plant in Kenton, Del, after outbreak of listeria linked to the company’s cheese killed one person and sickened seven others. MORE

Mar. 6, 2014

New York City health officials warn people to take precautions when handling raw fish after at least 30 people who bought seafood at markets in Chinese neighborhoods across the city contract rare skin infection; source of outbreak is unclear, but those infected shopped at fish markets in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, Flushing, Queens, and Chinatown in Manhattan. MORE

Mar. 2, 2014

Op-Ed article by Nicolette Hahn Niman, owner of BN Ranch, explains how health recall involving beef that went through a Northern California slaughterhouse affects not only commodity beef operations, but also small- and medium-scale farms and ranches; contends the recall underscores the need for good slaughterhouse facilities that can be used by all farmers. MORE

Feb. 21, 2014

Union official and food safety group say Agriculture Department is suffering from shortage of inspectors at some of nation's meat and poultry plants, raising possibility that contaminated products could reach consumers. MORE

Jan. 29, 2014

Eric and Ryan Jensen, Colorado cantaloupe farmers who pleaded guilty to charges stemming from listeria outbreak in 2011, are sentenced to five years of probation and six months of home detention. MORE

Dec. 31, 2013

Rising awareness of China's severe environmental degradation has caused a surge of anxiety among ordinary Chinese and some officials over soil polluted by contaminated industrial waste water and the potential effects on the food chain; statement by Wang Shiyuan, vice minister of land and resources, that eight million acres of farmland should not be used to plant crops, offers an alarming glimpse of official findings on pollution. MORE

Dec. 21, 2013

Food and Drug Administration proposes rule to require major food producers to develop a plan to prevent intentional attempts to contaminate the food supply. MORE

Nov. 5, 2013

DNA barcoding, which can quickly analyze and identify plant and animal species, has shown that many herbal supplements on market are diluted, or replaced entirely, by cheap fillers like soybean, wheat and rice; consumer advocates and scientists say research provides more evidence that herbal supplement industry is riddled with questionable practices, from adulteration to contamination and mislabeling. MORE

Nov. 5, 2013

The Week column; Food and Drug administration study finds that 12 percent of spices imported to the United States are contaminated with insect parts, rodent hair and pathogens like Salmonella; other significant developments in science and medicine highlighted. MORE

Nov. 4, 2013

Are kosher or organic chickens healthier? One teenager found out. MORE

Oct. 31, 2013

Food and Drug Administration releases findings that about 12 percent of spices brought to United States are contaminated with insect parts, whole insects, rodent hairs and other things. MORE

Oct. 26, 2013

Food and Drug Administration, hoping to prevent food-borne illness, proposes rules for pet food and farm animal feed; proposal comes six years after biggest pet food recall in history, when a Chinese producer contaminated dog and cat food with melamine, compound used in plastics, causing the deaths of animals across the United States. MORE

Oct. 24, 2013

Food and Drug Administration is investigating deaths of almost 600 dogs that ate jerky treats made in China. MORE

Oct. 23, 2013

Two brothers, former owners of Colorado-based Jensen Farms, plead guilty to introducing tainted food in the marketplace after deadly listeria bacteria from improperly washed cantaloupes at their farm killed 33 people in 2011; they face up to six years in prison and fines of up to $1.5 million. MORE

Oct. 22, 2013

Indian police charge school principal Meena Kumari and her husband Arjun Rai with murder over the deaths of 23 children who were poisoned by a meal served at the school that was contaminated with pesticide. MORE

Oct. 21, 2013

Study published in journal Pediatrics finds that breast milk sold and donated online is often contaminated with high levels of bacteria, including a few instances of salmonella; research confirms concerns among professionals about unregulated cottage industry and food safety. MORE

Oct. 19, 2013

Editorial warns salmonella-contaminated chicken is still being sold months after it sickened hundreds of people; holds under current law, Food Safety and Inspection Service, unit of Agriculture Department, was unable to compel Foster Farms to recall the tainted products; urges Congress to hold hearings to determine if department needs more power to protect the public from potentially serious harm. MORE

Oct. 12, 2013

Editorial warns that government shutdown has caused staff reductions at Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, increasing risk that the public will suffer from food-borne illnesses. MORE

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A food-borne illness that contributed to the deaths of three people has been traced to a second production facility operated by Blue Bell Ice Cream, a company spokesman and health officials said Tuesday.

January 8, 2015, Thursday

New York Times reporters Michael Moss and Andrew Martin are investigating food-safety problems. If you have inside information or other tips for us, including cases of food-borne illness, please contact us through The Lede blog.